Cancer Screening

06-Oct-2016

Health screening in actual sense means to look for a disease even without experiencing any symptom of it. But then, why try to find a problem, if it is not there!!! The answer is, there are certain problems, which do not bother in the initial stage, and difficult to solve at a later stage. This notion is particularly true for the diseases life sustaining organs of the body and few malignancies that prove life threatening at an advanced stage, such as Cancer.

Cancer as a malignancy is so vicious that it draws away all hope of life from the afflicted person. The disease is characterized by uncontrolled growth of body cells that result in painful tumours. It is a disease that is caused by genetic alteration i.e. changes in the DNA. The changes could be inherent or acquired by exposure to certain environmental conditions. Though it is quite difficult to ascertain the cause behind the getting Cancer for a person, there are certain risk factors that increase the chances:

Risk factors:

Advanced age

Chronic inflammations

Excessive alcohol consumption

Excessive exposure to Sunlight

Exposure to certain chemicals

Exposure to certain chemicals/li>

Family history of Cancer

Eating or smoking tobacco

Recommended tests to detect Cancer:

Complete Blood Count

This test is done to assess the quality of blood and its components, and other elements that could indicate Cancer.

Colonoscopy, Sigmoidoscopy, and Fecal occult blood tests

These tests are quite efficient in detecting the Cancers of GI tract. It helps in detection of early stage cancer and reduce mortality rate significantly.

Mammography

Mammography is one of the best methods to detect abnormalities in the breast tissue. This along with clinical breast examination is done to find out lump, nodules or tumours of the breast.

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA)

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA)

PAP smear and HPV Test

This test is performed to detect cervical cancer and also certain vaginal infections.